[well] Standard format for referencing sources

(<Author>, <year>).

[collapse title= “Example”]

Research has shown that there is no relationship between income and happiness (Paus, 2010). [/collapse]

[/well]

Source references in the text indicate the origin of an idea and information and enable readers to find the source in the bibliography at the end of your report so that they can look it up. In the text, you refer to a source by stating the author or authors and the year of publication.

[collapse title= “Format”]

• You state the author and the year of publication in brackets. If you mention the author in the text (for example, as the subject of the sentence), you only need to state the year in brackets.

[well] Example
Glass (2010) compared 34 studies on the influence on… [/well]

• When referring to the entire source, the name of the author and the year is sufficient. When referring to a specific part of the source, you need to state a page number or chapter. This applies not only to a quotation or a specific number, but also when you use an idea from a specific part of a source. So in many cases you do mention page numbers.
• To refer to one page, use p.; for multiple pages, use pp.

[well]Examples
Renes (2010, p. 120) warns of…
According to Smith (2002, pp. 112-113) several factors play….[/well][/collapse]

[collapse title= “Multiple authors”]

• For one or two authors: state both names in the text. If the authors’ names are enclosed in round brackets, use an ampersand (&) to separate them. You use ‘and’ if the authors are mentioned in the text.

[well]Examples

In a recent study (Donovan & Openheimer, 2011) the relationship between…
De Pater and Van der Wusten (1996, pp. 54-56) discuss…[/well]

• For three, four or five authors: in the first reference all authors are mentioned, separated by a comma. The name of the last author is preceded by an ampersand (&).

[well]Example

Another study (Cook, Crang, & Thorpe, 1999) contradicts this.[/well]

• In the following reference only the first author is mentioned, followed by ‘et al.’

[well]Example

Cook et al. (1999) concluded…
In their research into residential satisfaction, public space plays an important role in addition to the socio-economic composition of the neighbourhood (Cook et al., 1999).[/well]

• Six or more authors: only the first author is mentioned, followed by et al., even for the first reference in the text. [/collapse]

[collapse title= “Referencing multiple sources”]

• When referring to multiple publications in one place in the text, these are listed in brackets, separated by a semicolon and a space. The same order is used as in the bibliography (alphabetical order).

[well]Example

Several studies (Renes, 2010; Smith, 2011) show…[/well]

• If you are referencing multiple sources from the same author, mention the oldest publication first. If you are referencing multiple sources from the same author and fromthe same year, the year is followed by consecutive letters of the alphabet (both in the text and in the bibliography).

[well] Example

Several studies (Smith, 2012a, 2012b; Visser, 1999, 2004, 2009) show…[/well] [/collapse]

[collapse title= “Organisation or individual authors?”]
In reports, you usually state the names of the individual authors. These are usually mentioned on the title page or in the publication information.

If no individual authors are mentioned you state the organisation, for example, the Netherlands Institute for Social Research or a ministry.

Some organisations have an official abbreviation. You may use it the second and subsequent times you reference it in the text. The first time, you must state the full name followed by the abbreviation in square brackets.

[well]Example
In this example, the names of the individual authors are unknown so the organisation is mentioned.

First reference: (Statistics Netherlands [CBS], 2013).
Subsequent references: (CBS, 2013). [/well] [/collapse]

[collapse title= “Unknown authors and organisations”]
If both the author and organisation are unknown, you reference the publication using the first words of the title (or the whole title if it is short).

Titles of articles, chapters from books and webpages are mentioned using quotation marks; titles of journals, dictionaries, books and reports are italicised (this is rare).

[well]Examples
Much is done to tackle plagiarism (‘University into action against plagiarism’, 2013).
In Van Dale Groot Hedendaags Nederlands (2006)…[/well][/collapse]

[collapse title= “Quotations”]
Sometimes it is useful to literally include parts of someone’s text in your text. Reasons for this can be:

• The section of text reflects exactly what you want to say and is formulated extremely concisely.
• The inclusion of the quotation enlivens the text and makes it more attractive to read.
• The quotation comes from the data you collected (for example, from an interview).

The rule of thumb is: only include quotations if you cannot put it better yourself. Make sure that you do not use too many quotations.

Too many quotations result in:

• A text that does not read well because it is full of individual quotations joined together.
• The impression that you have neither a sufficient understanding of the literature nor have your own ideas.
• Copyright issues, if you exceed the permissible quantity of work that may be copied.

A quotation is always followed by a reference page entry. A quotation of fewer than forty words is placed in quotation marks.

[well]Example

Earlier research shows that ‘local authorities are convinced of the positive relationship between festivals and the city’ (Van Aalst & Van Melik, 2012, p. 204).[/well]

A quotation of forty words or more is indented in its entirety. Note:

• The quotation starts on a new line.
• No quotation marks are used.
• The page number comes after the full stop and is not followed by a full stop.

References within quotations are included but do not appear in the bibliography.

[well]Example
Van Aalst and Van Melik (2012) conclude:
The level of ‘place dependency’ thus differs not only among festivals, as stated in the introduction, but also according to the main actors. The festival’s organizers and its visitors are less convinced than the host cities of the importance of a specific location to a festival. In their view, the destination is the festival, not the city. (p. 205) [/well]

Quotations must be included in their original form. You are permitted to:

• Leave out excerpts of a citation and replace them with ellipsis points, that is (…).
• Emphasise a word or words using italics, followed by the mention [emphasis added].
• To add text for clarity [in square brackets].

[well]Example

Skifter Andersen (2008) concludes:
This is also shown here to be the case in deprived [emphasis added] neighbourhoods, since one-third of the respondents and two-thirds of those who think there is a poor reputation [of the neighbourhood] emphasised social problems as the main cause. Only a minority indicated that a bad press was a main cause. (p. 97) [/well][/collapse]

[collapse title= “Personal communication”]

Personal communication includes private letters, memos, emails, conversations, phone conversations, personal interviews, etc. This information cannot be traced by the reader and is therefore not included in the bibliography. It is also not possible to check the validity or reliability of this information, so use it sparingly.

If you want to use information from lectures, then look for publications by the speaker or literature to which the speaker refers. Personal communication that is archived, e.g. letters, unpublished manuscripts, clippings, interview recordings or transcripts, etc. that are part of an archive or collection, is included in the bibliography.

[well]Examples
The conflict has escalated (J. Anderson, personal communication, May 26, 2012).
According to J. Anderson (personal communication, 26 May 2012)…[/well][/collapse]

[collapse title= “An indirect reference”]
Sometimes you might find information in a publication via a secondary source and you cannot find the original text. In such cases, you refer ‘indirectly’ to that original work. Try to keep indirect references to a minimum. It is preferable to use sources that you have consulted yourself. That way, you also know that you have interpreted the source correctly. Note: if you use an indirect reference, in the bibliography you should indicate the source reference that was consulted, in this case Daniels et al. (2009).

[well]Examples

As previous studies have shown (Smith, as cited in Daniels et al., 2009)
Smith (as cited in Daniels et al., 2009) found…
Other research indicates… (Smith, as cited in Daniels et al., 2009)
Smith (in Daniels et al., 2009) concludes…[/well][/collapse]